How often does Russia get stripped of Olympic medals? Hot Buttered Post for Tuesday, Dec. 5

In this Feb. 15, 2014 file photo, a man carries the Russian flag past the burning Olympic cauldron at the Sochi Olympics.

Photograph by: Peter Dejong

Your midday sports snack.

Toast points

• The IOC’s executive board is meeting in Switzerland to determine Russia’s status for the Pyeongchang Olympics. The 14-member committee could ban Russia outright for the country’s systematic doping scheme at Sochi 2014; it could also bar selected Russian athletes from the Games, force Russians to compete as “neutral” athletes without a national affiliation or impose a monetary fine. IOC President Thomas Bach is expected to announce the board’s ruling at 1:30 p.m. ET.

(Update:The IOC suspended Russia’s national Olympic committee, but will permit clean Russian athletes to compete in Pyeongchang as neutrals.)

• Chelsea Carey (4-0) stayed undefeated at the Olympic curling trials today with a 9-3 victory over the winless Allison Flaxey (0-4). The blowout kept Carey on par with Jennifer Jones (4-0) atop the nine-team women’s field, setting up a marquee matchup with the defending Olympic champion tomorrow at 2 p.m. Reid Carruthers (2-2) won 7-5 over John Epping (1-3) in the lone men’s game in Ottawa this morning.

• Astros second baseman Jose Altuve and Texans defensive end J.J. Watt are Sports Illustrated’s Sportspeople of the Year, the magazine revealed last night. The Houston athletes were beacons in the ravaged city’s recovery from Hurricane Harvey, Watt for raising more than US$37 million in relief funds in the weeks after the storm and Altuve for guiding the Astros to their first World Series championship a couple months later.

• Bianca Andreescu was named Tennis Canada’s female player of the year today for her overall brilliance in the junior and senior ranks. The 17-year-old won two junior Grand Slam titles with Carson Branstine at the Australian and French Opens and made her women’s main draw debut at Wimbledon. She was the key player in Canada’s Fed Cup advancement into World Group II and became the first player born in this century to defeat a top-20 player on the WTA Tour when she beat Kristina Mladenovic in Washington.

Gabriela Dabrowski, who is ranked No. 18 in the world in doubles, earned Tennis Canada’s doubles player of the year award. She became the first Canadian woman to win a Grand Slam title when she won the mixed doubles at the French Open with Rohan Bopanna. Dabrowski won two doubles titles in Miami and New Haven, and she and partner Xu Yifan earned a berth in the WTA Finals.

• Outspoken basketball dad LaVar Ball is withdrawing his son LiAngelo from UCLA. The younger Ball never played a game for the Bruins, but earned an indefinite suspension for allegedly shoplifting sunglasses during a team trip to China last month, an incident for which he and two teammates were detained in that country for a week. LaVar, who recently feuded with Donald Trump over the extent of the President’s involvement in freeing the players, says LiAngelo’s new priority is to prepare for the 2018 NBA draft, where he’s a long shot to be picked.

Nutritional analysis

Russia’s strained history with the IOC goes back a lot further than today.

Russia has been the biggest loser of medals in the history of the Olympic Games, losing 48 medals overall (50 if you include the years it was part of the Soviet Union and Unified Team). Belarus, the second-worst offender, has lost 11. (Canada has still only lost one, Ben Johnson’s 100-metre gold medal in 1988.)

Russia’s stripped medals represent 33 per cent of all the medals reallocated by the IOC.

Below is a chart of the medals won by and stripped from Russia in the last six Winter Olympics.

Russia has lost 17 medals, all coming in three of the Games: 2002 (Salt Lake City, 5), 2006 (Turin, 1) and 2014 (Sochi, 11). The state-sponsored doping program in Sochi, as uncovered by whistleblowers and the McLaren Report, is what has Russia in its current predicament with the IOC.

In the breakdown of medals lost by sport, cross-country skiing represents the largest number so far with nine, leaving Russia with 29 all-time. The stripped gold medals Russia won in 2014 in bobsleigh (two) and skeleton (one) were the only ones the country had ever won in those sports.

Photo of the day

Steelers linebacker Ryan Shazier suffered a frightening back injury against the Bengals last night. The Pro Bowl defender was immobilized on a backboard, carted off the field and hospitalized overnight in Cincinnati after attempting to tackle Bengals wideout Josh Malone in the first quarter. Shazier appeared to take Malone’s shoulder in his upper torso before falling on his side, reaching for his back and laying still.

Shazier had movement in his lower extremities this morning, NFL Network insider Michael Rapaport reported. The Steelers said in a statement that Shazier doesn’t need surgery “at this time.” Head coach Mike Tomlin, who visited the hospital before flying back to Pittsburgh last night, told reporters today that Shazier was “in really good spirits.”

At nationalpost.com

• With apologies to Charlie Lindgren, everyone knows the Canadiens are much better off with Carey Price in goal. But it’s still striking how the Habs looked more like Cup contenders than also-rans in Price’s first week back from injury. Here, Michael Traikos identifies the one player who controls the fate of every Canadian team, from Price’s counterpart in Toronto to an acclaimed recent top draft pick (no, not that one) in Edmonton.

• Here’s a treat for the hockey nerds among you: Former Florida Panthers owner Stu Siegel joined the Off the Post podcast to chat about the present and future of the sport’s relationship with technology. Listen to Siegel and show host John Matisz discuss the intricacies of team ownership, new developments in hockey data, the challenges of implementing player/puck tracking technology and more.

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